Puppy WiFi Assistant is completed!!!!!

[Aitch]

thanks, tempestuous

Like I keep telling people - you're the man!

Exactly as I thought, can8v needs to update the design

@can8v
I hope you didn't mind my giving tempestuous a link, causing you to redo your work,
as it was apparent he hadn't spotted the thread

I thought it better now, than later

Good job!

Aitch

[can8v]

@Aitch
No worries. Things like adding a version to the db are only a speed bump at this point in the game. You are right it is better sooner than later. Something like that could take a few hours.

I have roughly completed the search by date and search by manufacturer. I posted the application to my personal website for interested parties to have a look.

Next I will complete the search by model and the search wizzard. The search wizzard will allow the user to enter as much known data about their system as possible and then Puppy WiFi Assistant (as I have come to call this application) will then pull up the appropriate listing. After that is completed I will upload again. Then you will not see anything until I complete the functions for updating the db from the web (how ever long that turns out to be, maybe a a day or a couple weeks). Since I might get busy, as teachers generally do this time of year, I wanted to show something for my efforts thus far. After all if you add up all the minutes here and there I am into this for almost a whole days work now.

right now I only have four WiFi adapters in the db with results from testing on a few different Puppy versions all of which have skimpy notes, but it is enough that you will start to get the idea of how the application will work. The data at this point is only there so I have something to work with during development. After the application is complete I will get some good data entered for my 6 different WiFi adapters as tested on several different versions of Puppy and start working on what is in the forum threads (that is the part that I will ask for all the help I can get).

Here is the link to the application so far:
http://salis.sutteryuba.com/WiFi.php

[can8v]

I was helping the lanlord with some projects around here today and I keep thinking about this project. I came up with a new idea; instead of creating a search wizard and a search by model (which would have a really, really long list to select from after a while), I am think it would be better to use the search by manufacturer (shorter list to weed through) then provide an option narrow the list by models from that manufacturer, then provide an option to narrow the list again by model version number, then again by Puppy version. At any point along the way when the list gets down to a manageable size the user would be able to select the desired card from the list. What do you all think of that???
Or one better than that would be to let the user narrow the list each time by the field of their choosing. In fact I could add these features to the search by date feature, as well. Then I would also add a search only compatible adapters option (which would display only adapters proven to work and that have setup notes, this doesn't mean that the other cards won't work, only that nobody has uploaded instructions for making them work). If the list could be narrowed regardless of the originating search I think the three originating searches would be enough. Search by date would take care of people who just want to keep up with the latest and moderators. Search by manufacturers is a good starting place for people who already have their adapter installed, but not working. Search by compatibility would be great for those shopping for an adapter, as they could then narrow the results by Puppy version.
So what are the thoughts on this idea?

[Aitch]

@ can8v

1st paragraph, if I understand sounds similar to this;

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... country=uk

which is excellent, BTW, & if this is sorta what you're intending - yes, good

I normally;
select notebook/
screen autoupdates/
select Thinkpad 570E/
screen autoupdates
etc....... until the model/rev is found, whereupon all details relating to that PC are available

Try it, you'll see

2nd paragraph, I think the idea of a 3 branch stem is good - unless something like the thing I suggested earlier of 'peculiarities', which tempestuous highlighted as hardware variations 'within model as revs' as I have experienced many times that a card works with one PC, but not another of the same model, as its not only wifi card manufacturers who do 'revs' - mobo support chips change too - darn them!
I'd just hate to see your efforts screwed by naff hardware design mods

The demo looks good so far
The 3 search button is great!

Maybe you'll need a date range from/to as you may not know exact dates?
I've often wished for something similar for the forum, when I'm trying to find something to refer to

Aitch

PS: If you could add a box which displays 'here's how to find out what hardware you have' and a script to punch into a console is displayed, or something similar, for real noob [& notsonoob, too] assist
what do you reckon?

[can8v]

@ can8v

1st paragraph, if I understand sounds similar to this;

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... country=uk

which is excellent, BTW, & if this is sorta what you're intending - yes, good

Indeed, I was thinking the same thing except without AJAX, as I want someone to be able to get the information they need without JavaScript. Basically the same thing, but not quite as speedy, because of additional page refreshes. To post information I think JavaScript will be required as I will have to give up to much in order to not use it.

I normally;
select notebook/
screen autoupdates/
select Thinkpad 570E/
screen autoupdates
etc....... until the model/rev is found, whereupon all details relating to that PC are available

Yes it is very nice. Incidentally I also have a 570E around the house somewhere. Nice little machine, but my monitor is on the fritz on that machine.

2nd paragraph, I think the idea of a 3 branch stem is good - unless something like the thing I suggested earlier of 'peculiarities', which tempestuous highlighted as hardware variations 'within model as revs' as I have experienced many times that a card works with one PC, but not another of the same model, as its not only wifi card manufacturers who do 'revs' - mobo support chips change too - darn them!
I'd just hate to see your efforts screwed by naff hardware design mods

I think between the version number and individual setup notes for each Puppy version for each version of each model that we will be about as safe as we can be there.

The demo looks good so far
The 3 search button is great!

Maybe you'll need a date range from/to as you may not know exact dates?

Date range? hmmm. . . good idea. Why didn't I think of that? I will have to put some thought into how I can make that a reality, or better yet maybe I should google it and use somebody elses idea of how to make that a reality.

I've often wished for something similar for the forum, when I'm trying to find something to refer to

Aitch

PS: If you could add a box which displays 'here's how to find out what hardware you have' and a script to punch into a console is displayed, or something similar, for real noob [& notsonoob, too] assist
what do you reckon?

Actually, I was planning on taking Lobster's idea (I think it was Lobster's) of having a blog for the purpose of having more general instructions available. Then I would like to make certain blog post linked to appropriate pages (similar to making a forum post sticky, so that it stays available all the time). Perhaps the WiFi assistant could be renamed to WiFiAssistant.php and the blog could be WiFiBlog.php. I will think about this some more, upon rethinking this solution, it does sound a little complicated. Maybe I should build out a few pages with my CMS and link them into the Puppy WiFi Assistant. I think perhaps Tempestuous should have the honor of coming up with the copy for those pages though. Almost all I know about WiFi in Linux I owe to him.
can8v

[Aitch]

Almost sorry I'm the only f/b

glad you like the i/p, hope it's useful

Not so keen on the java though [many puppys still struggle with this & flash] - too many people disable it, as with activeX, or IE - like adverts ; who needs em

I find just having something/one to bounce ideas off, keeps the juices flowing

Almost all I know about WiFi in Linux I owe to him.

snap

he da man!

Date range - courtesy paypal , never seen it?

/aside

you have a 570E, we have more in common?

interesting website BTW

Aitch

[Aitch]

here is paypal sample

showing is drop down box with choice day/week/month/year

blocked by it, underneath [sorry, my bad] is the from/to[start date/end date] boxes

HTH

Aitch

[WhoDo]

Here is driverguide.com's simple 3-step solution to finding drivers for Window$. You could do worse than following that example, especially since the number of drivers for WiFi in Puppy is likely to be very much smaller than their ambitious database.
Step 1 - Select your company name:


Step 2 - Type in the device model / keyword


Step 3 - Download your driver / read the notes

[can8v]

here is paypal sample

showing is drop down box with choice day/week/month/year

blocked by it, underneath [sorry, my bad] is the from/to[start date/end date] boxes

HTH

Aitch

I think you misunderstood me. I understand the concept the part I need to give some thought to and google around about is the PHP scripting involved. I have to give a little thought to what the best MySQL query would look like. I won't be to difficult, I just never thought about it like that before. I am going to be really busy this week, but I think I will be able to get back to this project and get a few hours in on Wednesday. I hope to switch the date search to a date range at that time as well as the other methods I discussed for narrowing the search parameters down. If not definitely by the weekend. Next week I am really hoping to find time to build the PHP scripts for updating and editing the db from the web.
can8v
P.S. Aitch, thanks for all the input throughout this project it has really spurred me on to think that at least few others have really taken an interest in it.

[Aitch]

I think you misunderstood me.

I just thought, if you had access to a paypal page you could use firefox's pagesource code copy facility.....

no matter, I think you are more than capable, having seen your other stuff on your webpage

Aitch, thanks for all the input throughout this project it has really spurred me on to think that at least few others have really taken an interest in it.

No problem, glad to be of support

no hurry/no worry

Aitch

[can8v]

@Aitch
Viewing the page source helps with JavaScript and HTML/XHTML, basically anything done at the client side. PHP and MySQL happen on the server side, so you can't rip off someone elses code. No worries though, whatever I can't easily figure out for myself I have generally been able to google around and find a tutorial for. Anyway on this particular issue I figured it out last night.
can8v

[Béèm]

For some reason I just see this post now.
I think the idea is very good and will be a helpful tool as quite a lot of questions are about WiFi connection.

However I still am not in agreement with myself if there should be moderation or not.

[can8v]

@Beem
Do you care to expand on that? I would like to hear your arguments for and against. This argument has been in my mind the whole time. What experience do you have as a moderator of a blog/forum or other online applications that you might be basing your opinion on. I have only moderated my personal blog (and a couple others that were short term blogs for project management purposes), which I developed from scratch not that long ago. I can tell you I implemented very strict moderation. Every reply to a blog gets moderated before it is accessible to the public. In the case of my personal blog which see little traffic I get about 2 spam replies per day that include links to porn sites and only about 5 replies per month that are legit replies from family and friends. If it gets much worse I am going to require login credentials from my family and friends before they can reply to my post. I would like to not have moderation at all, as it a pain in the tail, but I think the real question is how strict does the moderation need to be, because I don't want to make it any stricter than necessary.
can8v

[can8v]

I got to spend three hours on this project today, but I got bogged down when I discovered I would have to rewrite all of the queries for the display abstracts function. This process required almost a dozen loops to accommodate all of the filtering of the search results. It seems kind of silly using the filtering on my test data, but I know it will be required as the db grows. I will get around to converting the search by date to a search by date range sometime later this week, then upload the changes, before adding the functions to make updating accessible from the web.
Cheers,
can8v

[can8v]

I have been in the hospital since Friday evening, dke ue to a bowl obstruction. I don't expect to be home until tomorrow, but to my delight I discovered that the hospital has even faster WiFi access available for their patients than I have at home. I only wish I discovered this sooner, as I have spent many distraction free hours here "resting". That is code for doing NOTHING. It really is driving me crazy. Anyway I sent my wife back to the to pick get my Puppy WiFi Assistant files off of my desktop and she is on her way back with them. I really hope to get this project close to completion before I split tomorrow, as I will not have distraction free time like this again for some time. Whatever I get completed I will post up to my sandbox space on my website for you all to review, before I leave the hospital.
can8v

[Aitch]

dual post

Aitch

[Aitch]

...dke ue to a bowl obstruction[typo in the anus?].......before I split tomorrow

Split?; I should get a nurse to have a look, if you think that's likely....

these damn bowel problems can go too far, you know

Take it easy

Aitch

[can8v]

Progress has been made. I have finally worked out what I believed to be the last of the bugs in the search filtering system. I went with a design that requires the user to start by selecting a manufacturer, then the user can narrow the search results down, by selecting only certain models, only models that have been tested with specific Puppy versions, and whether or not the card has been found to be compatible, not compatible or unknown compatibility. I still have to put in some labels to make things more self explanatory to complete newbies, and a convert the search by date to a search by date range, otherwise the visitor interface is roughly complete (I have hopes of completing all of this before I get out of the hospital. and I should be starting the registered user interface this coming week, which is where the db will be updated.

Speaking of the registered user view, I was thinking I could limit the amount of moderation required if I had a minimum of 15 post on this forum as a requirement to register. I would simply require the user use the same username, and write a script that checks to see how post the user has on this forum, if it is 15 or more the script would create an account and send the password as a PM on this forum. This would only be done once when the first registers. Of course I would have to run all of this past Mr. Murga, as it would cost his forum a slight amount of bandwidth. That is of course if I can work out all of the technical difficulties. In the mean time I would have to manually approve the registrations, so the motivation to complete such a project would be high.

@Aitch
Yes I know these things can be serious. I had a partial splenectomy in 1988. In 1998 the adhesions (scar tissue) from that surgery had grown and strangulated my colon causing me to require a second surgery to remove the adhesions. I was afraid that was what was happening this time, however; this time resolved on its own, all I required was some medication for the pain and to be observed for a couple days to make sure I wasn't going to need another emergency surgery. the second surgeon told me to expect to go through this about every 10 years and it has bee almost exactly 10 years since the last surgery, so I am a little freaked out it.

can8v

[can8v]

******* News Flash********
I finally got the visitor view completed and will start work on the registered user view as soon as possible. Please review the visitor view at: http://salis.sutteryuba.com/WiFi.php. I will be adjusting the css this morning to color coordinate a few things, like the calendar controls, but it will not affect any testing. Enjoy and please leave feedback.
********End Flash********

[Aitch]

Cool

I hope you are going to have links somewhere on the page to 'wifi howto'

This Rhinoweb video is yonks out of date & we really need a current version

http://rhinoweb.us/howtosetupwireless.htm

This, from the Wiki/WhoDo, only needs a little updating, but good visuals:-

http://www.puppylinux.org/~whodo/wiki/h ... neral/wifi

Anyone got any better ones?

Aitch

PS: There's hundreds of forum entries, which I don't know how much info your db will utilise?